Those who falsely contend that renewables “cost more”, have been allowed to get away with this claim because too many of us have been taught to conceive of cost in only terms of the money we pay immediately, right on the spot, for a given product or commodity.

Calculating cost must include short- and long-term costs
Everything we consume has — and produces – an immediate, front-end, short-term cost, and long-term, back-end costs.

For instance, when we buy a pet, we typically think of the cost mostly in terms of the actual money we put on the table for the pet, maybe $100.

However, when you total food costs, waste disposal costs, vet costs, and other assorted costs, that pet, over the course of its 15-year lifetime, may well cost you in excess of $10,000!

Also, just like you, your pet and its lifestyle will incur environmental costs – through pet waste, through consumption of food products, etc.

If you’re tired of all the faulty, loud claims that solar energy is “too costly,” “(economically) inefficient”, “can’t be done,” etc., solar-charging your car is definitely for you!

This is not to imply that pets are not worth the long-term cost. They offer crucial and rewarding companionship to millions, probably billions around the world.

It’s simply to underscore that short-term, upfront costs are only part of the economic equation.

Of course, these short-term, upfront costs also happen to be the only part of the equation that “free-marketers” acknowledge.

The long-term, back-end costs of a carA car is another good example. When we think the cost of the car, most of us think sticker price.

We don’t think lifetime car maintenance costs, fuel costs, insurance costs, parking costs, and, of course, the tremendous environmental costs driving our car will incur. But these are all part of the total cost picture.

An accurate calculation of cost simply must include not just immediate, front-end, short-term cost, but also back-end and long-term cost.

Nor can it simply focus on the economic. There are also environmental – not to mention potential political, and ideological costs – associated with every single purchase and every single human action.

Free-market types try to cloak the reality of the complexity of “cost” with their ideology.

But it doesn’t take much to un-mask it and reveal it as the un-reality it is.

If you’re tired of all the faulty, loud claims that solar energy is “too costly,” “(economically) inefficient”, “can’t be done,” etc., solar-charging your car is definitely for you!

What solar-charging your car will do politically
By solar-charging your car you will:

a) show the naysayers that it can be done, by actually doing it yourself – this is a far more powerful, far more effective way to effect political and environmental change than to, for instance, attack the naysayers in writing (which, of course, we are doing here);

b) build a green economy by your actions;

c) do something the naysayers will not be able to stop.

The naysayers and fossil fuel only folks — OK, so often they add “clean” nuclear energy to their mix, a form of energy that produces not-at-all “clean” toxic, radioactive waste which poses a potential threat to humanity and the environment for literally hundreds of thousands of years! — can try to shout down the environmental movement.

If enough among a growing environmental movement in the U.S. and the world take action – through concrete lifestyle changes, such as buying an EV and/or PHEV and solar-charging it – the naysayers will not be able to stop it.

Their own ideology – which, at its core, holds that the world ought to be driven by individual consumer actions – will stop them cold.

There’s no more effective way to get the green economy going than to actually do it yourself, through your concrete purchasing actions.

If the green economy does indeed grow – and solar-charged driving is clearly a potentially powerful part of this green economy — because you and I, and the other “greenies” out there, through our concrete purchasing and buying actions make it grow, well, that’s how the market is supposed to work, isn’t it?

And the free-marketers cardinal (and misleading – misleading in the sense that there is no such thing as a totally unregulated market) rule is: You can never, ever toy with the almighty market!

So, if you are economically in position to do so – yes, this is an issue, which we will discuss elsewhere, and to which we are sure to return frequently on the pages of SolarChargedDriving.Com, go out and buy an EV and/or PHEV as soon as they are on the market!

And put solar panels on your home to partially, or, if you can, fully charge one EV – or more.

There’s no more effective way to get the green economy going than to actually do it yourself, through your concrete purchasing actions. It’s far more direct than giving money to someone else to do your action for you (although we do encourage you to give to groups like Greenpeace, Sierra Club, etc.).

Do it by yourself and for the world, and to prove the naysayers wrong, wrong, and, once again, wrong!

About The Author

Christof Demont-Heinrich is founder, creator and editor of SolarChargedDriving.Com, which he launched in September 2009. A journalism professor at the University of Denver (DU), Demont-Heinrich is a lifelong environmentalist who loves to bird, hike, camp, and bike. As passionate as he is about the environment -- and about promoting the synergy between solar power and electric cars, he is equally passionate about writing.

4 Responses

I have 24 solar panels and a Nissan Leaf. In 2014 I paid $5.35 out of pocket for electricity. For the obtuse, that means I paid that amount to run my home and electric car. If that is not proof enough, well, this should be. The investment in solar and the EV are generating over 9%, tax free, each year. If this is not a winning combination, then, I do not know what a winning combination would be. Thanks.